A standing second opinion, every two weeks.

Consulting is the lightest way to have me in the room. A 60-minute call every two weeks, email between calls answered within two business days, and a written priorities check each quarter. From $6,000 a month (USD), six-month minimum, no hours tracked. It exists for founders who have a good team and a clear plan and want someone who has done it to check the plan, and for smaller companies I want to work with where a weekly cadence would cost more than the decisions it improved.

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01/ The shape

What a month looks like.

Calls: Two 60-minute calls a month, same slot, on a shared agenda you add to between calls. The agenda is the two or three decisions in front of you, not a status update.
Between calls: Email. Send the deck, the model, the offer, the hire, the term sheet. You get a written read within two business days, and a call moved up if it cannot wait.
Quarterly: A one-page written priorities check: what changed, what the next quarter's three moves are, what to stop.
Benchmarks: Access to the same benchmark set and models I use on every engagement, so a question about your CAC or your churn gets an answer against a real band, not an opinion.
Not included: Slack, attendance at your internal meetings, and hands-on work on your documents. Those are Advisory and Partner. If you find yourself wanting them, moving up happens at any monthly boundary.

02/ Who it fits

Right for some founders. Wrong for others.

A consumer brand under $5M with a founder who still owns growth and wants a second set of eyes on the decisions, not an operator in the seat.Fits

A seed or pre-Series A software company where pricing, packaging, and the first distribution channel are the whole game and the calls come monthly.Fits

A team that has already done The Read and wants the plan checked as it runs, without a weekly meeting.Fits

Growth has stalled and you cannot tell which of five explanations is real. That needs the models built and kept honest, which is Advisory.Not this

There is a raise, acquisition, or sale in the next twelve months. That is Partner.Not this

03/ The number

$6,000 to $8,000 a month, and what that buys elsewhere.

Where a client lands inside the range depends on the size of the business and whether one founder or a small leadership group is on the calls. The number is stated in the readout of The Read, before you commit to anything beyond two weeks. For context, Consulting sits below the floor of the fractional executive market and below any agency retainer, for a call with the person who has run the play rather than a team executing one.

What the alternatives usually run

OptionUsual costWhat you are paying for

$25k to $35k/moFull-time VP of Growth, Marketing, or Ecommerce, fully loadedA $200k to $300k package before benefits, payroll tax, and equity, plus a recruiter fee and a three-to-six-month ramp. One person's experience, all of their hours, whether the week needs them or not.

$12k to $22k/moFractional CMO or CRO at the experienced end of the marketplacesUsually ten hours a week, scoped to marketing or sales. Board-level scope and revenue accountability sit at the top of that band.

$10k to $25k/moDTC growth agency retainerPlus 10 to 20 percent of media. Hands, not judgment: the agency executes the plan, it does not tell you whether the plan is right.

$200 to $500/hrBoutique strategy consultancyA two-week diagnostic at those rates runs $16,000 to $40,000, delivered by whoever was free that fortnight.

Ranges are 2026 US market figures from published rate guides and salary data, stated at the level a scaling brand or software company actually pays. The comparison that matters is not the monthly number; it is whether you are buying hours or the call.

04/ Terms in brief

Six months, then a year at a time.

Six-month minimum, renewing for twelve months at a time after that. Sixty days' written notice either side once the minimum has run. Billed monthly in advance in US dollars. Moving up to Advisory happens at any monthly boundary on fourteen days' notice, with no new minimum. The full terms, including scope and what is quoted separately, are on the engagements page.

05/ Common questions

Questions before we talk.

QIs two calls a month enough?

For the founders it is built for, yes. Consulting is for a business where the decisions come every few weeks, not every few days. If the pace picks up, the tier moves with it.

QDo I still need The Read first?

Yes, unless you are a returning client or a referral from a current one. A $5,000 Read credited against a $6,000 first month means the first month is close to free, which is the intended effect: the plan is written before the retainer starts.

QCan you look at something between calls?

That is what the email channel is for. A deck, a model, a hire, an offer, an inbound approach: you get a written read within two business days, and a call moved up if it cannot wait.

QWhy is this cheaper than a fractional CMO?

It is fewer hours, deliberately. A fractional executive at $12,000 to $22,000 a month is selling ten hours a week of execution inside one function. Consulting is selling the call on the decision, across all of them, and leaving the execution to the team you already have.

Tell me where you're stuck.

Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute scoping call. No pitch, no deck, a direct conversation about where you are, where you're going, and whether there's a fit. If there is, the next step is The Read.

Start a conversation Or book 30 minutes now →